If You Sin, You’re In The Bin – FA To Trial Radical Rule Change Next Season

‘Sin Bin’

The FA have announced they are to go ahead with the trialing of ‘Sin bins’. The idea has been mooted before, but never has such a radical change come close to being implemented to the laws of the game. To be ‘Sin binned’ will only occur in the case of dissent.

With dissent accounting for 24 per cent of all cautions at grassroots level, the intention is to change the behaviour and impose an immediate sanction on the player so the use of sin bins will be restricted for cautions of dissent only.

The trial will start from level 7 of the national league system and downwards. So we are talking localised park league football.

Whether this trial is fruitful remains to be seen. However what advantage if any could this new rule have? Will we see a team reduced to 10 men for 10 minutes defending and subsequently ruining the enjoyment of the game? Or could we see players behaviour improve? On the flip side this may lead to players purposely winding an opponent up to seek an advantage. Will we see a decrease in yellow cards being awarded?

Only time will tell and I look forward to seeing how they get on with this trial. What is certain is there are more pressing issues to be addressed and this would give the already heavily criticised referees something else to worry about as their interpretation is already under scrutiny on a regular basis.

What do you think? Is this proposal good or bad for the future of the game?